Director, Client Relations, Standard Chartered Bank, Shenzhen, China

Transcription

1 LIZZIE YU, CFA Director, Client Relations, Standard Chartered Bank, Shenzhen, China Lizzie, how did you get started in the industry? Actually, I started my finance career working for the bank where I still work. I started working right after I graduated from university. I studied foreign languages at university, but I didn t know what kind of job I would find. A friend of my parents suggested the opportunity at the bank to me. In China, foreign companies and banks are both places people like to work, although they don t know what it means to do so. A job at a foreign bank is a great opportunity for a young person, so I thought I should try this job. What are some ways you prepared in school that made it easy for your employer to want to recruit you when you graduated? Well, they were looking for an assistant for the cash management team. When I graduated, I was well-prepared for foreign equities because anyone in China who wants to work for foreign companies needs to be. For the first year after I graduated, I worked for a manufacturer of central air conditioners. I also worked as an administrator, which was helpful in getting the bank job. You said a family friend was able to connect you with the opportunity at the bank. In terms of the hiring process, was it generally smooth? Was it what you expected? I think the hiring process and the interviews were not very challenging. They were looking for someone to do just the administrative job, so that was straightforward. How did it progress further? How did you make the move from coming in as an administrative professional to the next role you held in the bank? Foreign banks have evolved a lot in China over the past 12 years. I have been in this bank for 12 years and have evolved with my bank. When I started at the bank, I did an administrative job, and then I began to realize that colleagues around me were doing more complex jobs. I also found that the way they worked and the way they lived was the target that I wanted to achieve. So, I decided to take more training and exams, such as the CFA Lizzie Yu, CFA, is a client relations professional. She completed university in 2001 and initially went to work for a private company in China. In 2002, Lizzie joined Standard Chartered Bank, where she has subsequently been promoted to director of client relations. She works with corporate clients from South China, providing a full range of banking products. Lizzie earned the CFA Charter in CAREER SUCCESS: NAVIGATING THE NEW WORK ENVIRONMENT 2015 CFA INSTITUTE 232

2 Program, to equip myself with the knowledge required for this industry. As the industry evolves, I face a lot more new products and new clients. Also, the bank is a cross-border business, so I continue to use what I learned from the CFA Program in my job. Were some of your colleagues in the CFA Program, or did you find it separately? At that time, only a few of my colleagues took the CFA exams. Most of them took the training from our bank, mainly in accounting or credit risk analysis or something like that. But that was not enough for facing future challenges because our products evolve from the basic cash and lending products to more complicated products, including foreign exchange hedging and such derivative strategy products as bond issuance or corporate finance. So, the knowledge I gained from the CFA Program really helps. What role do you currently hold? I m a team leader for the relationship management team for corporate clients. You were pretty proactive in finding some of the education you needed to move your career forward. Do you consider that part of a career plan you had for yourself or just something you noticed and did? I still share with fellow CFA Institute members and candidates that when I entered the banking industry, I didn t know what this industry meant or what I should do for a job. But maybe 2 or 3 years later, I realized that I would make it my career to do this for 20 or 30 years. At that point, I decided, as you said, to look proactively for an educational program to enhance my knowledge. When I looked around, I found accounting courses, risk management courses, and the CFA Program; people told me to go for the CFA Program. For Chinese people, it is the most challenging exam because it is taken in English and it covers the broadest range of finance industry knowledge. I was thinking that I should try it because it covered all the things that I need and because as a future banker, I need to know almost everything about this industry. Do you believe that you have a lot of passion for the finance industry now that you are in it and have invested in it by taking the CFA exams and volunteering for a CFA Institute member society? Yes. For my own job, I really have a passion because China is a developing economy and we are facing new problems and new issues as well as new opportunities. Most companies in China are becoming more internationalized. I really see a lot of new things to learn and a lot of new opportunities in China, so that s very exciting for me. CAREER SUCCESS: NAVIGATING THE NEW WORK ENVIRONMENT 2015 CFA INSTITUTE 233

3 I think volunteering for a CFA Institute society is even more helpful for my career because I get to know people who are working in other fields of the finance industry. Foreign banks are only a very small slice of the industry. Through the society, I get to know people from trust companies to foreign securities and from insurance to other investment functions. That is very helpful for my own job to know the landscape of the whole finance industry. Also, they provide me with a lot of opportunities to review my personal development. I think that s very helpful for both my job and my personal development. It sounds like one of the advantages you have had, and known that you have had, is your ability to learn foreign languages. Finance, in general, is a very global industry these days. How does that impact your career? Actually, as I said, I work for a foreign bank and we use English for our communication, mainly writing and reading. Also, our clients, the companies in China, are looking for financing for getting into the international markets. One area where we can help them is getting the financing through our own presence in the overseas markets. For example, most of our clients have a presence in Hong Kong and Singapore, and our bank has a strong presence in those places, too. We can help the companies get financing there. The other thing is that clients sometimes need to acquire overseas subsidiaries. We can find proper targets for them and help them to complete the transactions. So, we re basically doing cross-border transactions for our clients. My knowledge of foreign languages as well as the knowledge I gained from the CFA Program about international financial markets has been very helpful in my job. Have you had or made opportunities for yourself to gain more experience or exposure outside of China? Yes. Actually, we have a lot of communication with our Hong Kong and Singapore colleagues. Also, we have a presence in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. We often look for financing solutions from our colleagues at each of those locations. What do you know now about working in finance that you wish you had known when you first started working? I wish I had known more about the overall landscape of the finance industry. It would have been helpful in understanding how to position myself in the whole industry and in understanding how I could help my clients. I also would have liked to know better what risks and returns I could get for my own employers. CAREER SUCCESS: NAVIGATING THE NEW WORK ENVIRONMENT 2015 CFA INSTITUTE 234

4 If you were advising someone starting out in their career today, what things would you tell them to do or not to do in terms of managing their career? We talk a lot with our colleagues about this subject because we re also recruiting people. We would like to see someone be more patient. To have solid knowledge about the industry means a person has to spend a lot of time studying and going through the economic cycle for a while, which may take 5 years or so out of a career that he or she will do for 20, 30, or even more years. I think five years is not a long time to be like an apprentice to know more about the industry. In China, the economy is developing really fast and someone can find a lot of vacancies in more senior positions, but not every young person is well prepared for more senior levels. People are rushing for higher positions because of more pay or something, but I would like to tell them that they should be more patient and focus on doing well in what they are doing, not focusing on the other level. If they are well prepared, they will easily get a position. How do you balance your personal life with family or friends? The hours are hard, they tend to be long, and it s a demanding industry. Whenever I think about that question, I cannot help laughing to myself because I m not a good example for good balancing, especially if you consider the first few years when our team was new and everyone was trying to figure out what we can do. We were trying every kind of client and product. It was very exciting and new, and I could not help putting all my time there. Also, I was preparing for and taking the CFA exams, which kept me quite busy. People around me said I was almost totally into studying and working. I spent all my leave on preparing for the exam. So, I was not a good example at that time, but maybe in the past five years, the team has found that we are on a fast track and that we understand what our bank needs and what kind of products we are asked to provide to our clients. Now I work less overtime and have more time to spend with my family. I also find delegation is a very useful tool. I delegate more to my subordinates so that I can have more time to spend with my family, and my subordinates then have the exposure to more challenges and chance to grow. I think that s a very useful tool. In China, would you say that there is a difference between the opportunities men and women have for work/life balance? Yes, I would say so. I don t know other places, but I assume that in most places, women will take longer parental leave than men, so that creates a problem in that people are more inclined to hire men. That s a fact we cannot deny. It is true that women face more challenges in the industry and they often have to face a gap during their career when they have children, from the pregnancy until the children go to kindergarten, which is around three CAREER SUCCESS: NAVIGATING THE NEW WORK ENVIRONMENT 2015 CFA INSTITUTE 235

5 to four years. Also, I think even after that, women are expected to take on more responsibilities for the family, which means they have to sacrifice more at work. Along similar lines, we find that women represent a significant minority in the finance industry. Do you notice that fact having any effect on either your career personally or in your organization? What are your thoughts on that? Where I live, I see maybe equal numbers of women and men working at my bank and participating in the CFA Institute society, which is pretty good. It may be because the women can speak English better than the men. It is very common in China that women can master the second language better than men, so they have more opportunities in something related to English, such as the CFA exams. At the higher levels, a lot of the leaders are men because I think women have less chance to get a promotion because of those career gaps for family. Have you had mentors in your career, and if so, what has it meant to your career? What are the things that you have identified in someone else that has helped them be a mentor to you? I would say that my boss is a mentor to me. He has been working in our bank for more than 20 years. When I entered the bank, I was lucky to be working with him. He has a broad view of things, so he can tell us how to evaluate our situation no matter the industry or the clients. Also, he gives us some personal development advice. He is a forward-looking person, and he encouraged me to take the CFA exam and also to be very active in the CFA Institute society. He understands that the bank is only the place we work and to be a good employee and also to find more good opportunities, one needs to go outside the bank to see how this whole industry operates. I really think he is a mentor to me. CAREER SUCCESS: NAVIGATING THE NEW WORK ENVIRONMENT 2015 CFA INSTITUTE 236